Former Prestonsburg Mayor Indicted for Theft of City Funds

Former Prestonsburg Mayor Jerry Fannin has been indicted for theft. In an indictment filed Wednesday, February 22, 2017, related the former mayor had received more than $10,000 in federal funds for the city of Prestonsburg over a twelve month period and used the funds to benefit the East Kentucky Drillers football time. The Drillers were a semi-professional arena football team located in Pikeville and had no official or legal affiliation with Prestonsburg. If convicted, Fannin faces up to 10 years in prison, plus additional penalties.

According to a 2015 audit, Adam Edelen, Auditor of Public Accounts for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, found that Fannin also profited $97,000 for a real estate deal that presented a conflict of interest for him personally and in his official capacity as mayor.

According to a 2015 audit, the administration “was cutting sweetheart deals for itself, wasting taxpayer dollars, and generally running the city for the benefit of a few.”The East Kentucky Drillers football team benefiting from city resources, as well as other questionable spending, let to the loss of grant funds for the Prestonsburg Senior Citizens Center. We will continue to update this story throughout the week.

Continuing our coverage of the indictment of former Prestonsburg Mayor Jerry Fannin on theft of city funds, he was found to be using city property for the benefit of the Eastern Kentucky Drillers football team.  According to the indictment, two city owned vans used by the Senior Citizens Center were used to transport the Drillers to a game in Michigan.